Fabric Design | DIY crafts | Graphic Design | Interior Design

Giving Yellow Heart Art some <3

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing through many, many design blogs & came across Leonora at Yellow Heart Art. She’s eye-catching because she has a very fun attitude when it comes to what she does & how she does it. She was inspiring to us because she does a little bit of everything and does it all well. We wanted to pick her brain a bit to get her perspective on balancing her life w/blogging & design.

We love your quirky personality that shines through perfectly on your blog. Does it tend to attract the right kind of clients or followers?

Aww I’m so glad you think I’m fun! Yes a lot of my customers/followers feel as though she can share silly links with me or tweet me products they might think I like. I love being interactive and talking to anyone! ❤

Where do you find your design inspiration?

This is going to sound so cheesy but I find it everywhere! I try to keep up to date on all trends, not just graphic design. I am constantly seeing what is being sold in the fashion industry and try to translate that over to my art.

What made you decide to start your own blog? Did you ever imagine your blog/shops would grow into such a huge success like they have?

I’ll be honest with you, when I first started my shop, Yellow Heart Art, back in January of 2011 I had no idea what I was doing! I just thought “ok, I put pretty things in my Etsy shop, now everyone go crazy!” but people can’t go crazy if they don’t know you exist! I started to talk to more and more to other handmade people out there and they all told me to start a blog, twitter and facebook account. It really does help to have all those social media sites, I think it’s awesome when you get to know the people & artist BEHIND the shop or blog, and I want everyone who follows me to feel like they’re my bestie, b/c I kinda feel like they are 🙂

Were you nervous about starting your own blog to promote your services without any prior business experience? Actually yes I really was! This might sound bizarre but I kept Yellow Heart Art a secret from most of my friends and family for a year and a 1/2. There is something so personal about creating artwork and putting it out there for all the world to see. I guess I always kept that part of my life a little secret since I know not everyone is going to love what I do, and that’s ok! I was worried about being judged, but one day I finally shared my blog and shop with my friends and family and the amount of support was so over whelming, I can’t believe I was so scared to show anyone!

What made you realize graphic design was the path you’d be walking today?

Ahh geez not to “date” myself here but back when I was in high school there were no “graphic design” classes. I was always artsy and thought I was going to go to school for photography. One day in my photo class in High School I took some head shots of my friends for fun and uploaded them into photoshop (dude, photoshop version 7 which is, like, ancient ok?) I then started to re-create their head shots onto popular magazine covers like Seventeen and Sports Illustrated. My photo teacher saw me doing this and told me I should go to school for graphic design. I had no clue what graphic design was, but figured I’d give it a shot. I am so glad I did because I get to create things from my imagination every.single.day. (best job ever!)

How do you manage your time since you have your hands in a bunch of everything? Congrats on having your designs on society6.com by the way…

Thank you so much for the congrats! Managing my time has gotten harder and harder each month that passes by. I have this super strict policy I set for myself where I try to disconnect from any “yellow heart art” stuff on the weekends. I work full time on top of running Yellowheartart.etsy.com, my blog, my society6 shop, working freelance for clients, creating new inventory & working part time as a freelance designing on a wedding blog. I try to do all Yellow Heart Art stuff after work or during work on my lunch breaks. I never want Yellow Heart Art to consume so much of my life that I forget to live. I am hoping I will have more time if I ever quit my full time job! Lists are my best friends, they keep me in check. I also try to dedicate certain days to certain tasks. Like Wednesday is Laundry Day, Monday is food shopping day, Tuesday is package order days, etc.

How did you get into collaborating on an e-book? Photoshop for bloggers was my friend Gina’s idea! She is the owner of Acute Designs (acutedesigns.org) we took my Photoshop skills and her writing talents and came up with a book that would help bloggers not feel so intimidated by Photoshop.

If you love Leonora’s style as much as we do, follow her on Twitter, Facebook and check out her Etsy shop.